Using Thermage CPT and FAMI Facial Fat Transfer To Look Younger

Innovations Medical is one of the largest Thermage providers in the United States. Thermage is a non surgical skin tightening procedure that is usually 1 treatment and takes about 2 hours to perform. Patients that are needing skin tightening around the eyes, mouth, and neck fall into the demographic for Thermage. It’s simple, and since it’s non surgical, you don’t have downtime associated with it. The procedure works by heating the water next to your collagen. As this water heats up, it causes the collagen to shrink down. (think of a piece of bacon…as you heat it, it gets smaller and smaller) Once this contraction happens, the body heals itself over about 4 weeks and regrows newer, thicker, more elastic collagen in place of the original collagen. This new collagen likes to contract further over the next 6 months.
Now, what happens in most patients is that it’s not just loose skin that’s causing the aging. Most of the time it involves loss of fat in the facial area. This is normal, and usually it’s seen around age 30 and up. As the facial fat cells start to shut off, the face starts to deflate. This added skin will droop and make patients look aged. To counter the aging effect, many go through facial filler injections. It’s a great non surgical option for those on the go. The downside is that it’s temporary. Expect to spend about $1400/year to get fillers. If a patient wanted something more permanent though, FAMI is the way to go. FAMI stands for Fat Autologus Muscle Injections and is a facial fat transfer procedure. The concept takes fat from a healthy area on the patient’s body, processes it, activates the stem cells within, and then re-injects the fat into the facial muscles. There are about 40 injections done on the entire face, and about 70 cc’s of fat used. At Innovations Medical, a photo of the patient at age 21 is used as a baseline map to determine where and how much fat needs to be transferred. The goal is not to look overfilled, or like someone else. The patient wants to look younger, but still like themselves. FAMI does come with some downtime though. Patients are swollen and bruised for about 2 weeks, but results start to show at about 6 weeks post. As the cells get stronger, they will finally become a permanent change at about 3-6 months post surgery.
Both procedure are excellent choices and are complimentary to each other. Many patients opt to do both since one is for volume and the other is for skin tightening. For more information about these procedures, please contact Innovations Medical 214.420.7970.